Actors, director on important message ‘Belle Douleur’ bears
Cinemalaya entry “Belle Douleur” wants to break the biases against May-December affairs, particularly when the woman in the relationship is older.
“I’ve always wanted to do (a movie with) a theme like this,” said lead actress Mylene Dizon. “This shouldn’t be a taboo. It could happen to anybody. Why is it okay if a man is older and falls in love with a younger woman? Why is it taboo when an older woman falls in love with a younger man?”
Mylene plays a woman in her 40s, who wanted to find her own happiness amid the conformities of the society. Her character gets romantically involved with a young antique collector, played by Kit Thompson.
Despite the steamy scenes, Mylene didn’t hesitate in accepting the project.
“When she showed me the clip of that French woman telling her story, that was very moving. I was not very concerned with how much love scene we are doing. I am confident enough
that she would be true to her word na
ito lang tayo. My worry was on the delivery of the message,” she added.
Mylene, being the more experienced actor, helped Kit with their onscreen tandem. She finds him “very professional, helpful, and gentle” as she also didn’t feel violated during their intimate scenes.
“He let us guide him when he was struggling with some scenes. If it were another actor, there are some who don’t want to be meddled. In this case, it’s needed because we have an intense relationship in the movie. We have love scenes, we have very thoughtful scenes and it can’t be merely done just by saying your dialogue,” she said.
Kit feels honored working with Mylene and finds her “maalaga and experimental.” They always discussed how to do every scene.
“She’s a great actress. She was very helpful also, whenever I had some problems with some scenes, she would be there and help me clear my head and figure things out,” he said.
Working with Atty. Joji Alonso for the first time as their director, Kit was very impressed. He auditioned for the role online.
“She was very supportive and she really knew what to put out. She was very specific with the details. She had everything, she had the whole script when she presented it to me. She had her shots, she was well-prepared to do a feature and that really impressed me,” he said.
Joji has always wanted to do this kind of film but was afraid that she couldn’t. Despite her law background, she pursued her passion in filmmaking.
“I can’t explain how I feel. It’s just so powerful how the medium is. I pursued a law career because my dad said there’s no money in filmmaking, which is true, filmmaking is a huge gamble. The dream never died. At the back of my mind, I was hoping I could also direct a movie in the future,” she said.
The lawyer-filmmaker described her debut as a “smooth ride” because of the support of her cast and crew. Mylene was her first choice when the movie’s concept came to her.
“As a new director, it’s very important that your artist is really good. You won’t have a hard time with the blocking and in releasing her emotions because she’s a really good actress. That’s beyond questions. I also like that she looks good in her scenes as Mylene is really beautiful and sexy,” she said.
For the leading man, Joji wanted somebody tall as there’s partial nudity involved. She also felt casting the leading man would be difficult as not all young actors would be willing to do those scenes.
“Since the woman is older, the guy has to be taller so it would look balanced. Kit Thompson was suggested. We requested him to audition online,” she said.
Learning that doing this movie has been Joji’s movie, Mylene felt honored and emotional but also pressured to be fulfilling somebody’s vision.
“It was very difficult to film the expectations of any director, not alone a first-time director who already has her visions down since last year. Mahirap magkamali. There was a lot of pressure. It was somebody’s dream and she chose you to fulfill that,” Mylene said.
“Belle Douleur” is co-produced by Quantum Films and ABS-CBN’s iWant.